The present invention relates to a traveling inspection robot system, and mole particularly to a traveling inspection robot system which runs under remote operation or automatic operation via a control console installed on the ground and is suitable for use in inspection and monitoring of nuclear power plants.
As described in JP, A, 60-230094 entitled "Apparatus for Monitoring Nuclear Power Plant", there is conventionally known an idea of the so-called traveling inspection robot arranged such that a monorail is installed along an inspection route, a carriage is propelled to travel following the monorail, and further a sensor unit including a combined set of various sensors is mounted on the carriage through a pan and tilt mechanism, thereby carrying out inspection and monitoring.
Also, in the above-cited JP, A, 60-230094, a travel unit for the traveling inspection robot is constructed by mounting upper front and rear travel wheels and lower front and rear travel wheels on a traveling carriage in such a manner that the monorail is sandwiched between these upper and lower travel wheels on the front and rear sides.
Meanwhile, another similar travel unit for use in other than the traveling inspection robot is described in JP, A, 50-213562 entitled "Baggage Carrying Equipment". A travel unit for the described equipment is arranged such that two carriages are each provided with a pair of guide rollers for guiding the travel in a direction vertical to a monorail and two pairs of side rollers for guiding the travel in a direction transverse to the monorail, and these two carriages are connected with a coupling member through parallel steering shafts to be rotatable independently of each griper, thereby avoiding interference with the monorail curved in the horizontal direction. The described travel unit also includes, as travel driving means for giving a travel driving force to the carriages, a motor, a transmission mechanism and a friction driving wheel. Which are located above the guide rollers and the side rollers. On the inner side of the monorail, there are formed a guide surface over which the side rollers roll, and a friction surface which locates above the guide surface and over which the friction driving wheel rolls. The monorail has a height enough to form both the guide surface and the friction surface, as well as to accommodate the travel driving motor and the transmission mechanism.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,349 discloses a baggage carrying apparatus that a conveyor belt is installed along a guide track and a palette is placed on the guide rail to be carried by the conveyor belt. A U-shaped guide groove is formed at the center of the guide track, and the conveyor belt is traveled in the guide groove. Two segments having two pairs of side rollers to guide the travel are provided on a side wall of the guide groove and coupled with the palette through parallel steering shafts to be rotatable independently of each other.